The Gazette recently held a Pop-Up History Saturday at Broad Ripple Park. About a dozen people attended. Union Jack Pub donated several pizzas and the Broad Ripple Park staff donated soft drinks.

The subject of this History Saturday was specifically the history of the Broad Ripple Amusement Park that was at the current location of Broad Ripple Park. The goal was to draw a map of the locations of as many rides and buildings as we could. As the interviews progressed, it became clear that the reason why our previous amusement park history interviews had not turned up much information was because almost all of the amusement park was gone by the 1940s.

Attendees included park neighbors, park visitors, park employees and relatives of park ride operators. Tom Becher told of his childhood days working concessions at the park in the late 1940s. He took the trolley from the east side on Indy to the park and made and sold hamburgers and hot dogs to people visiting the Broad Ripple pool, which apart from the run-down carousel, was the only attraction left in the park at the time.

Ken Farmer told of his relatives that included William Hubbs, Lavern "Babe" Dodds, and Albert Dodds. They worked at the amusement park in its heyday, operating and maintaining rides.

The Gazette will transcribe all of the interviews and follow up with several of the attendees for extended interviews to further our account of the old Broad Ripple Amusement Park.

Any readers with amusement park info can call the Gazette at 317-759-4825 or email to info@broadripplegazette.com